2022 Four-Star athlete Ja'Marion Wayne commits to Mizzou
On Friday Missouri received a commitment from Four-Star athlete Ja'Marion Wayne from Parkway West in Ballwin, Missouri. Wayne is the Third commit of the 2022 class joining safety Isaac Thompson and tight end Max Whisner.
With Wayne's commitment, this bumps Missouri's class ranking up to 11th in the nation. This won't hold with how many kids still have to make a college choice, but this is very encouraging as Missouri's 2021 class as it sits right now is the highest-ranked in school history. Missouri has a chance to top that for the 2022 class. The fact that this next class is already up to such a good start just shows the kind of impact that coach Drinkwitz is having on the recruiting trail which hasn't been the case at Mizzou for quite awhile. Gary Pinkel was known as a player developer and not necessarily a great recruiter and Barry Odom never had great success recruiting quality talent either. The fact that Drink is one year removed from taking the job and has already sold the program to elite recruits this well is very promising to see if you are a Missouri fan.
All three of Missouri's commitments thus far for 2022 are in-state recruits meaning the ball is already rolling locally. This is hugely important for the rest of the class and it will be interesting to see how many commitments from around the state Eli Drinkwitz can stockpile. This year's Missouri class is extremely deep so there's no telling how many Mizzou may get.
Wayne is listed as an athlete having played several positions on the field. In seven games this season, he rushed for 391 yards and four touchdowns and caught 24 passes for another 404 yards and a TD. in 2019, he rushed for 895 yards and 12 TDs as well as caught 25 passes for 466 yards and 7 TDs. Wayne also played free safety this past season with 41 tackles and two interceptions. He has said Missouri's coaching staff like him to play receiver at the college level, He certainly has the frame at 6'3" 180lbs. He can obviously put on some more size to endure college hits. Overall, Wayne has size and speed to work with at the next level and he has plenty room for improvement. I previously discussed in another article Mizzou is going to be thin at receiver next year and they only have on receiver for 2021 so adding a versatile guy like Wayne can only help the situation in the future.